Tech analysis

A rundown of tech trends and what they mean for you.
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Tech analysis

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Register a domain name for cheap at Namecheap.com
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November 9, 2010
In a recent lifehacker poll for best registrar, however, while both of those showed up on the list, the top honors went to a lesser-known (at least by me) site called namecheap.com.
RegExr makes regular expressions easy(er)
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November 2, 2010
Regular expressions are an extremely useful programming tool for finding and manipulating patterns in text. Unfortunately, the syntax can be pretty overwhelming if you've never used them before (or even if you have).
Sometimes you just have to use a site to really evaluate it
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October 28, 2010
I've recently had occasion to try out a variety of different sports websites. During the process, I ran across a live game cast from Comcast SportsNet that I hated on first glance; after about 5 minutes of using it, however, it had turned in to one of the best game cast tools I've used.
Vote with your wallet
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October 27, 2010
I live in San Francisco. As you may know, AT&T cell phone service is absolutely awful in San Francisco (like many other major U.S. cities).
The gap between mobile apps and mobile websites is shrinking
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October 26, 2010
When we made our own mobile website, we commented that many iPhone apps would probably be better served as mobile websites.
Ninite installs all your PC applications for you (no more clicking "next")
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October 25, 2010
A friend recently told me about an online service called Ninite which makes installation easier than I could have ever dreamed.
Microsoft continues its push into the cloud with Office 365
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October 21, 2010
Much like just about everyone else, Microsoft has spent a lot of time of late talking about the importance of the cloud in the future of both computing and of Microsoft.
The differences between graphic design and user interface design
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October 20, 2010
One of our main goals with this blog is to help our readers choose the best software possible. There are many things to consider when evaluating software such as price, platform, reliability, speed, etc. but I think the most important thing is design.
Get started with link building by submitting your site to directories
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October 18, 2010
As a matter of fact, "link building" is one of the most important, and difficult parts of online marketing. It's a topic too large to tackle in one post, but luckily there's a pretty easy way to get started.
Need to hire a programmer? Make sure they have a good portfolio.
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October 15, 2010
With how important technology is in business these days, it's becoming increasingly common for small business owners to hire programmers.
Rocket Lawyer: one stop for legal documents, referrals, and advice
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October 14, 2010
While one of the nice things about a small business can be the avoidance of much of the overhead, bureaucracy, and paperwork ubiquitous in the corporate world, at some point, even the smallest business is likely to require a foray into the legal realm
If you write a blog, just accept the fact that people can steal your content
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October 13, 2010
As you probably know, publishing content online is a great way to promote your business. Unfortunately, the things that make information so easy to share online also make it almost impossible to protect your content.
Run a quick audit on your web security with the Gmail Security Checklist
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October 12, 2010
As part of their security features for Gmail, Google has a security checklist of things to do and keep in mind to help protect the integrity of your Gmail account. Many of the 18 items are fairly obvious or specific to Google, but it's a useful checklist not only for your Gmail account, but for any online account.
Windows Phone 7 reviews highlight how fast technology is advancing
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October 11, 2010
You may have heard that Windows finally released a new mobile operating system called Windows Phone 7.
Try out a new web service this weekend
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October 8, 2010
I'm going to suggest a small challenge for the weekend: set aside an hour or two this weekend and try out some new software.
The very basics of writing scripts in Google Docs
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October 7, 2010
I wanted to give a very basic overview of how scripting works in Google Docs. In addition to being useful for thinking about the mail merge, hopefully this introduction will give you a sense of how you can use scripting in Google Docs to extend it's functionality in any number of ways.
Tip: Pin your taskbar to the side of your screen
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October 6, 2010
Have you ever wondered why it runs along the bottom of the screen? Well I have. From a UI standpoint it makes way more sense to have that bar running along the left or right side of the screen instead of across the bottom.
Check domain name availability quickly and easily with Domize.com
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October 5, 2010
If you ever find yourself seeking for an available domain name, Domize.com is a great place to start.
How User Generated Content Helps SEO
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October 4, 2010
As far as I know, there is only one truly scalable way to add content to your website: User Generated Content (UGC). If you offer your followers a way to speak their minds on your website, you'll be able to build up a respectable source of information without any ongoing work on your part.
What we can learn from Google Wave's failure
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October 1, 2010
As you may have heard, Google is giving up on Google Wave. Wave was a new communication and collaboration tool that was meant to reinvent email.
The predictive power of search
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September 30, 2010
I was looking through the table of contents of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) earlier this week, when I ran across this article about how search volume can be used to "predict the present" as well as the near future.
Dealing with negative blog comments
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September 29, 2010
Allowing comments on your blog can be a great way to engage your readers, but there's always the chance that some of the comments will be negative.
Perform a simple mail merge in Google Docs
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September 28, 2010
Plenty of options exist for performing mail merges, including Microsoft Office and online resources such as Mail Chimp. If you just need to send a few basic scripted emails, however, Google Docs can do the job fairly well.
Flavors.me makes it easy to create a personal website
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September 27, 2010
We've pretty much beaten to death the idea that every business needs to buy a domain name, create a website, and write a blog to help establish their online brand, but what about individuals?
Join.me provides free simple screen sharing
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September 23, 2010
There are a ton of screen-sharing options out there with a variety of features, but few are as straight-forward to set up as Join.me.

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